“Idol Gives Back” Starts Giving Back
Awhile back The Agitator applauded the “Idol Gives Back” extravaganza in which program sponsors and voting fans donated more than $75 million to fight illness and poverty in Africa.
Critics ranged from saying this project was simply promotional hype to arguing that the money given by fans was faux charity, since they were really paying to vote for an entertainer, with the cause being purely incidental.
To which we said cowpies!
We won't repeat our arguments here.
We simply want to point you to this International Herald Tribune article on where the donated funds are actually now flowing.
To groups you might have heard of — UNICEF, Malaria No More, Nothing But Nets, Save the Children, the Global Fund to Fights AIDS, TB and Malaria, and others — who are fighting specific diseases, helping victims of genocide, getting dropouts back in school and ameliorating poverty across a broad range of programs.
Are the “donors” of these funds really donors? While philanthropic scholars debate the issue, millions of lives are being improved … many outright saved.
That's good enough for us. Case closed.
Roger & Tom
Behavioral Science Q & A
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